Hits from Feb. 2010

One would have to ask if the Universal Declaration of Human Rights has three or thirty articles. Health, education, and the access to culture are basic rights, but we cannot be distracted by them and forget all the other rights, which are just as, or even more, important than the previous mentioned. What is the point of a person having an educational system, medical attention, and cultural activities when all their freedoms are infringed upon, sometimes even by physical violence?

There are supposed important international names that defend the ruling military regime in Cuba. Those people should be checked under the so-called Miracle Operation so that perhaps the miracle of being able to see the truth may occur, even though, as everyone knows, there is no worse blind person than the one that does not want to see, just like there is not a worse deaf person than the one who does not want to listen.

After what occurred on December 10th, the international Day of Human Rights, it was made clear how that issue was to be handled under the Castro dynasty. Defenseless women whom simply ask for freedom for their loved ones were victims of harassment by gangs convoked by the anti-Cuban mafia which the regime uses for that purpose- State Security.

Although this is only a superficial report, if we go deep into the subject then we would never finish. The amount of violations committed daily are innumerable, whether it is in the large prison that is Cuba and its streets, or in the smaller prisons where thousands of Cubans are punished for an offense they have committed or have not.
By Diosdado Gonzalez Marreo, prisoner of conscience in the provincial prison of Pinar del Rio.

Translated by Raul Garcia & AV

Note: “Operation Miracle” is a joint eye surgery program between the governments of Cuba and Venezuela that has treated patients from multiple countries and is free of charge.

Representatives of the totalitarian and exclusive communist government which controls the fate of our people appeared at my home in Perico, Matanzas, on Tuesday January 12, to advise my daughter, Sahili Navarro Alvarez, that she would be permanently expelled from her fourth year of law school at the university because, months before, she took a journalism course in the Office of Interests and, as a principal requirement of Cuban universities, they train only young future professional revolutionaries.

A trial by fire for Sahili, who was beaten in the street by fanatic cheerleaders on April 26, along with six other Women in White opposite the Perico bus station. That order, against anyone in the 21st century, sent a clear message to the Cuban people and to the world, that the political system which rules in our country is more discriminatory and exclusive than the one which ruled in South Africa during apartheid and that it demands humiliation or submission if one wants to accomplish anything, because universities and liberties in Cuba are fief and chaplaincy of the communist party.

In addition, it is a message to whoever of us want to live with the dignity necessary to emigrate, to live either in glorious exile or in prison. But for the communists who give the orders in our country, I say to them from here that the three people in my home were born in this country and that we will continue to live here even if the only option remaining to us is in its slave prisons, but never on our knees.

From Canaleta Provincial Prison en Ciego de Ávila, Félix Navarro Rodríguez, prisoner of conscience and member of Pedro Luis Boitel Party for Democracy.

On a day like today, but in 1853, a man was born who later became the Cuban Apostle. That was the birth of our José Martí Perez, who from his early years regarded with horror the evil deeds of those who governed this land. For criticizing their abuses he served time in prison at hard labor, and was expelled from his homeland, which is also ours. From exile he continued his toil for the freedom of Cuba. His tireless work established the Cuban Revolutionary Party and managed to reunite the forces to begin the war necessary to lead, finally and with the help of old friends, to the Republic with a constitution that makes us independent of all foreign domination.

This great man left us a legacy worth following, but Cubans continue to suffer the same chronic disease of despotism. It is time for us to stop jockeying for position. Think of José Martí, fighting alongside those who wished him well or ill, so that Cuba could be free. We must understand that our struggle is against a single evil: the dynastic dictatorship of the Castro brothers. To commemorate the 157th anniversary of the birth of the Apostle, let us unite in his name and in one tight-knit group who are all for victory.

On January 5, prisoner of conscience Adolfo Fernandez, a member of the Group of 75, had a family visit in the Provincial Prison of Canaletas in Ciego de Aliva. The political police official in Canaleta would not allow him to receive a magazine that his wife had brought him, claiming “that it was very strong”. The magazine in question was Lay Space, a publication of the Lay Council of the Archdiocese of Havana, volume 5, number 3 2009, which is a publication of the Catholic Church of Cuba. In this issue interesting subjects are presented for public debate, for the reconstruction of a broken country and the subject of the House of Cuba; Our House of Cuba. A citizen, Antonio Femenia Echemendia de Ciego de Avila, accompanied Fernandez’ wife and was not permitted to enter Canaleta prison.

On the morning of January 8, the authorities in charge of Canaleta prison in Ciego de Avila called a special meeting of the prison population. As reported by several sources, who requested anonymity, the meeting was chaired by a number of soldiers, including the director, Lt. Col. Reynerio Diaz Betancourt. He acknowledged that Cuba has at least one prison for prostitutes, which in 2009 had more negative incidents than the provincial prison for men.

He also assured us that as of this year homosexuals will not be admitted during family visits if they are not close relatives of prisoners, as it would set a bad example for the inmate population. Elsewhere in his speech, Diaz Betancourt said that during the year-end festivities and the celebration of the anniversary of the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, an individual, whom he did not identify, smuggled a subversive video into the prison, in which “a traitor to Communist Party of Cuba and the government, defamed the leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro Ruz,” in a program broadcast by a South Florida television station.

The Canaleta prison director also said that the person responsible was stripped of his benefits, including the right to continue university studies. He explained that the chief of the prison system has declared that those convicted of crimes against state security, human trafficking, rape, crimes against foreigners, and felony murder, are not entitled to study at the top level, or to receive benefits regulated by the Directorate of Jails and Prisons. He further stated that from now on any radio, DVD, phone, camera or video, and reports of any kind on any media will be confiscated without recourse.

By Pablo Pacheco, Prisoner from The Black Spring in Canaleta Prison, Ciego de Ávila.